Happy Tuesday, Activists! We hope your week is off to a good start. We have some maintenance, if you will, on our earlier Call To Action about the school voucher program, below. And we need to help out the progressive groups in Ohio trying to defeat the Republicans' cynical attempt to damage democracy in their state. Plus, we still have postcards to get out the vote in Philly. It's a full plate but we know you're up to the task! Have a great week!
OHIO You may have heard that Republicans in Ohio have put a single-issue ballot initiative up for a special election on August 8. It's called Issue 1. If passed, it will change the Ohio Constitution to require a 60% "Yes" vote to change the constitution, rather than the 50% requirement that has been in place for 100 years. The ultimate point here is to make constitutional protections for abortion access nearly impossible to be passed, an initiative which has already received a huge number of signatures to place it on the November ballot. As this editorial states: "Also likely on [the] target lists: Potential ballot issues to end the corrupt gerrymandering of General Assembly and congressional districts and relieve the chokehold the gun lobby has on the Statehouse. The proposal would also make it far tougher to get citizen-initiated amendments on the ballot, but without changing how legislatively proposed amendments reach the ballot." So we need to help the groups in Ohio to defeat it. How can you help? Here are three options: 1. If you have family or friends in Ohio, tell them to vote "NO" on Issue 1. 2. Sign up to phone bank here. 3. Join an Indivisible Text Party this Thursday evening -- Sign up here.
CALL TO ACTION REDUX Say NO -- again -- to taxpayer funded private and religious school vouchers. So you might be saying to yourself, "but wait, we already did this, and Governor Shapiro promised to use a line item veto to remove the voucher program from the budget! Our calls worked!" Well, dear readers, Republicans have shut down the PA Senate session until late summer and are "actively negotiating with the governor" over the budget. We worry that they are trying to convince Gov. Shapiro to change his mind on the line item veto (remember he was for the school voucher program before he said he would remove it from the budget). Remind him and our state representatives that we will not stand for the private and religious school voucher program and the governor needs to keep his promise to veto that line item. Find your State Representative here. Send an email to Governor Shapiro here or call his office at 717-787-2500. The voucher program would fund vouchers for students in "low achieving" school districts. The result will be to pull taxpayer money from Pennsylvania's public schools and put it the hands of barely-regulated, private corporate and religious school owners. Several state and national unions have registered their strong opposition to this voucher plan. In case you were wondering, As the unions point out, the proposal could also go against February’s Commonwealth Court ruling holding that the state’s public school funding system is unconstitutional. Not to mention that it will drastically harm Philadlephia schools. Call your state Representative and email or call Gov. Shapiro TODAY and tell them to make sure the line item veto removes this damaging proposal from the state budget Find your state Representative here. Email Governor Shapiro here or call 717-787-2500.
POSTCARDS! Register to Vote Postcard Project You've probably already seen that we are writing to voters who have recently moved to Philadelphia. Some moved from out of state, some moved within PA, and some moved within Philadelphia. These voters (Non-Republicans) are registered to vote at their previous address but not at their new Philadelphia address, and we want to encourage them to do it, with information on registering and signing up to vote by mail. We have about 15,000 addresses left so you can still pitch in! See all the details and why these postcards are so important at this link. Here’s how to sign up – 1. Email us here to tell us you want to write postcards. Tell us how many you want to write and give us your address. 2. Donate here to our Act Blue account and donate $7.00 per set of 50 cards (plus an extra $7.00 if we need to ship to you.). Thank you! 3. Use this link to buy your postcard stamps or go to your local post office. We ask that you donate $7.00 per set of 50 postcards to cover our costs. But don’t let the donation stop you from ordering the postcard packets. On the other hand, if you can, please consider chipping in a little extra to cover the cost for those who cannot. THANK YOU!
35 DOORS PROJECT! Talk to voters in your neighborhood to get out the vote. This is some of the most important work you can do - and it's fun! Check out our 35 Doors Project on our website page! Email us here for more info. We'll give you the training and all the materials you'll need. Vicki will tell you all about it!